Changing Internet passwords frequently? Don’t…It’s a waste of time !

I am sure that title has raised your eyebrows – But, contrary to our belief, it is the fact, atleast according to a study by Microsoft researcher.

Most of us have grown big by hearing that best defense against hacker intrusion is by changing the passwords more frequently, which apparently may not be true.

The study has found that constant changing of passwords is a giant waste of time and money both. In fact, constantly changing passwords is not going to save you from the disasters being wrecked by those unknown miscreants.

The study which aimed to gauge how effectively the frequently changed passwords thwart cyber attacks points out that someone who obtains your password will use it immediately rather than waiting with it without any action, only to find the password changed by you over a period of time.

If you are prone to regularly changing and modifying your password, the hackers are more likely to use the password at a right instance. The more frequently you change your password; hacker would feel a more urgent urge in carrying out the hacking operation at the quickest.

As rightly pointed out by someone, every technology has a both positive and a negative side. Similarly, with the fast growing technology, the hackers of today’s era are well-equipped with latest password cracking tools to zoom-in to your system without much intellectual efforts.

In fact, people frequently prone to changing the passwords also have to face various problems like remembering various passwords for a number of different User IDs.

The study further says that no one can cite a real statistic on password changes’ averted losses, but few would estimate it’s anywhere approaching $16 billion a year.

Another drawback of frequent changing of passwords is that he user has to either remember the passwords frequently changed or jot it down somewhere on a piece of paper which infact raises the risk factor of password getting compromised.

Even if the user has a good grasping power to remember frequent changes initiated in the password maintenance, it could be possible that the user may be re-setting his passwords to a easier and less cumbersome small-sized passwords with 6-8 character which could be easily hacked by the miscreants.

Rather than using the components of passwords which constitutes of the family or other profile features related to the user, one can mash a sentence together and take the initials of each wordings of the sentence, making your password unusual and easy to remember.

How about inculcating the findings of this new study in your online life…lol ?